Far Too Great Expectations

The number one reality that seems to be more than just a mythical trait among Millennials is unreal expectations. Whether that be your future career, salary in this career, the first home you will own, the car you will drive, or the social life you envision yourself having in your 30s.

I will admit that at 20 I did have unreal expectations despite being forever the realist (or a pessimist, as some people like to call it). When you are in your early 30s you tend to take a look around at your life and the people in it and evaluate it in comparison to the deluded vision you had when you were a bright-eyed, bushy tailed, the world is my oyster, 20 year old.

What did I expect when I was 20? I thought I would be big city living with my Rom Com job in a lovely apt (I wasn’t delusional enough to think I would own a home in Toronto or Vancouver), go to fancy dinner parties with perfectly coiffed grown up hair and a sexy black dress (I was also going to be taller and thinner), and have weekly Sunday morning breakfast with my besties, Sex and the City style.

Needless to say your bubble tends to burst when you get older and realize that you have a job you took because it was there and you are “lucky to have a job in this economy at all,” live in a cramped apt where having hot water long enough to finish rinsing out conditioner is a luxury, and you are definitely not taller or slimmer nor do you own a nice black dress or go to cocktail parties with Audrey Hepburn hair. It is hard to take this all in and not become jaded, discontent, and generally hopeless.

(side note of hope: I did get the VW Jetta I always wanted, Some dreams do come true)

Our generation took forever to grow up and now they say 30 is the new 20 due to our Peter Pan syndrome. This makes me wonder if my 40 year old self with laugh at my 30 year old self. I hope so because you always hear people saying, “this will be funny someday.” At least dredging through this season of my life will result in some amusement at some point.